I have modded the mpd.conf and alsa-base.conf as described here (THANKS A LOT Guys !!!!)...

Everything worked with nano like a charme. Result: Air, Power, Precison and Naturalness. The OS seems to disappear...each little Bios-Change becomes visible / audible...Each little characteristic of the recording is sudenly there and presented, there is no signature added...one rcording is warm and full and the next analytic etcetc.

So....mission achieved ?

Not yet. Now the hardware is on review. Currently am am running a Biostar's P4M900-M7 with an old Dual Core @ 1 ghz. Need to tune the memory which is running at 400 mhz, but the timings I have to look into.

On this board I see a couple of electrolytics which you be exchanged against Oscons...not sure If this board is worth the hassle.

On the Bench: The Z68, which is not working....wondering which I5 Boards you guys are using (RayCtech ?)...

An Intel 2550cc-Board is sitting and waiting to get tested...wondering if the here mentioned Asrock 525 is an older, but better alternative...

...and the Alix as well, which I will Mod, but where I am searching (not yet found) for a MINIPCI to PCI Adapter to use the fabulous sounding SOTM USB-Card which is powered directly by a discrete PSU....here I need to learn what the SSH-stuff is all about

PSU...today I will build my discrete 12V-PSU and will combine this with Minit-Itx...

Thanks a lot for this great work again ! Wich the right motherboard it is working like a dream !!! Would be good to get some of the after-glive-mods in the next release (like the unmute-thing, the performance-tweaks etc)

By the way: I assume a lot of you work with a NAS / Network...has anyone played around with the buffers of the network-card ?

Update:
I Started to install to the Intel 2500cc....Big Problems. Winx does not start...dhcp does not work...no mounting etc.

so, i guess, it would be the right thing to start to list the motherboards which really work with mpdpup and which dont...I tried now three and only one which you cant buy anymore works...

It seems that a lot of hardware vendors don't spend much time on Linux compatibility, so choosing brand new boards with cutting edge chipsets can often bite you. Choosing boards based on older chipsets that are on long term support roadmaps is generally the safest route. Since MPD's hardware requirements are negligible there's nothing wrong with choosing tried & true older hardware.

I'm not sure if moving to a 3.0 kernel from 2.6.39 would help a lot with this situation, but it may since that's where new driver development is happening now.

The next release will have the latest Intel Graphics drivers, and the wizards will be able to do the tweaks mentioned earlier along with mpd buffer configuration. Beyond that there are a lot of bug fixes and the ability to install some php clients and GMPC. It looks like I'll still be defaulting to mpd 0.16.x though - I was just trialing 0.17.1 on my main system and I'm not very happy with it - lots of drop-outs and one or two instances where the audio devolved into static. I guess 0.17.x isn't quite ready for prime time. I might include an option where a user can swap between them though.

Graphic driver problem on the JW as mentioned by Idolse, not an issue for me as mostly I use CLI.

On one of them I had a problem with DHCP (between the Intel & MSI, I don't remember which one) and it only happened once and I was not able to reproduce the problem. The solution was to start the network config wizard.

On the MSI, I cannot use the CF-SATA adapter but booting from USB works just fine.

@idolse I saw that the motherboard you mentioned earlier in this thread: Intel D945GSEJT, is still for sale in my town. Is it a faster and or better alternative for the alix board? And do you know weither or not there are problems with saving playlists with this version of mpdpup or mpd? Kind regards: Toine

Hi Toine, the D945GSEJT is a great board, I think Intel sort of treated it as a reference design around the Atom N270 & the 945GSE chipset, and a lot were made, which is why you can still find it today. In terms of comparison with the Alix, it's a lot more powerful, probably 3-4x more powerful, but it also draws about double the power (though 10-12 watts is still quite low). The extra horse-power won't buy you a lot - if you're actually interacting with the system it definitely feels snappier, but for playing back music the difference doesn't really matter. I sort of doubt it's sufficiently powerful for tasks like real-time high-quality sample rate conversion, but I haven't really explored that.

In terms of compatibility with mpdPup - it's still my reference board, and I won't release an update that I'm not confident works flawlessly my own kit . I'm not sure what playlist problem you're referring to - I haven't had any problems with saving/using playlists, so probably not an issue.

Ok guys...I learned from this discussion that the Asrock AD525PV3 should be a good choice....so I ordered it, just fired it up...and it looses the network setting in the same way as the Z68-Board or the Atom 2500cc board.

If you made this work, please tell me your trick.

I tried as well the Alix-Board with booting from the stick only (not CF-card). Well, that one does not apear on my router, no Ip-Adress...so HAS the Alix to be booted from CF-card in anyway ?

I have a lot of respect for this special effort to put mpdpup together. But this bug that it does loose the network-adress or Auto-DHCP not working...this one really needs a fix. I tried now 4 boards, only one is working...

Ok guys...I learned from this discussion that the Asrock AD525PV3 should be a good choice....so I ordered it, just fired it up...and it looses the network setting in the same way as the Z68-Board or the Atom 2500cc board.

If you made this work, please tell me your trick.

I tried as well the Alix-Board with booting from the stick only (not CF-card). Well, that one does not apear on my router, no Ip-Adress...so HAS the Alix to be booted from CF-card in anyway ?

I have a lot of respect for this special effort to put mpdpup together. But this bug that it does loose the network-adress or Auto-DHCP not working...this one really needs a fix. I tried now 4 boards, only one is working...

Hi Multiblitz, really sorry you're having so many issues, you're the first person to have this many issues getting the basic network up and running. I don't see where anyone mentioned that the AD525PV3 is a good choice. The Ethernet chipset it uses is the Atheros AR8151 which seems to be problematic on many variants of Linux, e.g.:
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=77947

If the GUI is coming up you can try and launch the network wizard to try and get an IP or even see if the interface is even being discovered - a little more troubleshooting detail would help to give you advice.

Regarding the Alix board, you probably need the Compact Flash, not sure what the BIOS default is, but it's likely that it's not looking at the USB at all. You'd need an RS232 cable to change the BIOS unless you got the Alix with VGA.

Thanks Idolse, I can check nrpacks now, great!
In the mean time i switched from Alix 3D3 to Atom board (Asrock AD 525PV3) and from battery to a hybrid linear/switching PSU (12v linear + pico-psu). Both brought me more detail and musicality. Douwe

...sounded like that...

...I did already exactly what you suggested, it will than find the connect in the mpdwizard....but forgets everything after the re-boot.

I think I was one of the first that ran the Alix, I followed the instructions on the first post with using netbootin and putty. The cf works. And works well. Haven't tried the USB. Reason- I want nothing but the USB card on the bus. My thoughts would be to follow the netbootin via a cf card on the Alix, use the Ethernet closest to the power socket. Takes about a minute to boot. Set a static ip via the wizard. Reboot, then look on the router. If no joy, try the other Ethernet port. Or perhaps into a switch, I have had routers where one port would not address.
Have a crack at the cf card. Worth the try!

...I did already exactly what you suggested, it will than find the connect in the mpdwizard....but forgets everything after the re-boot.

I wonder if something else is going on. You're not giving me much detail to help you with. So the network wizard found the card, correct? The GUI should show what driver it's using, can you let me know? Ideally you should start from scratch by deleting the save file from the USB stick so you can give me the answer to these questions in terms of a fresh install vs. reboots.

How exactly are you rebooting? The network wizard should save a file at /etc/network-wizard/network/interfaces/<mac address>.conf, where <mac address> is your actual mac address. When you reboot can you check to see that this file exists? Also cat the file and let me know what it's contents are.

After rebooting does the network wizard still see the card? Is the driver still the same as it was from the first boot? If you re-configure from the wizard can it still connect?

I will give you all the detail you want...oer the course of the day I will write everything down. for the start ( I will edit this post later to add the return of the command etc.)

First of all: I started each time with a clean, new formatted USB-Stick with MPDPUP on it.

The system is than booting. Than you have basically two choices: Either you go into the MPDwizard or you go into the General help/ config ( a white screen with some cliparts on it where you can start a network-config wizard).

The adapter is always found. (ether0). The IP-Adress is always 127.0.0.1. Only if I choose than DHCP Auto and force it to get an IP-Adress from the router, we have a connection.

I can go into the MPDwizard and achieve the same thing in the connection setting wizard as well. In the MpDWizard the sequence is only "wrong": First it looks for a user/pw to connect to the network drive and later it starts to ask for the network setting, so if you do not go into the General Wizard than you willl fail the connection test.

So, than I follow simply the wizard to the end. It is saving some files as normal, takes time. reboots itself.

And after reboot: Lost its memory on Ip Adress. Network adapter is still seen, But IP-Adress is lost, no matter if I used Auto-DHCP or static Ip, cant mount, cant start mpd.

The only thing I can test addiotnally would be if the USB-Stick itself could be the topic. The running version is a 2 GB one, The other ones are 4 GB (USB3), 8 GB(USB2). All have been setup nby the same machine in the same process.

On the commends etc....I will post this later...need to bring my son to a barber...

Eidt:

update: Alix is working....was actually pretty easy to setup from the CF-card....listening session will follow...soldering iron for exchanging the caps to oscons is warming up....

Short update again: Alix vs Biostar with Dual Core and SOTM USB-CARD: The Alix is softer, smoother, more analogue, but is lacking a bit transparency and attack ( has the same parameter optimizations as the Biostar). The Biostar is clearer, more powerful, but as well more technical sounding.

Bothe have no mods on the PSU...the Alix is powered with a small switching PSU and the Biostar with a Silverstone fanless. Alix as well ist just playing now 2 hours, not burned in at all so far...I guess I will give it some Oscons and a large filtering bank...Last edited by multiblitz on Sat 11 Aug 2012, 11:55; edited 2 times in total

dhcp is the default, the wizards assume dhcp will be successful, which is why share configuration comes before setting a static IP. Static IP is last because it can't be changed during the initial setup if that's done over ssh.

It sounds like there is some issue with initializing the ethernet on your setup. I doubt the USB stick has anything to do with it, but I need the answers to the other questions I asked.

there is no one place i can control the volume as hardware and if i send it bit perfect even the software mpd client cant even control i tried even doing setting change in sound and made it to hardware software independent but is there any place i can control the volume in this....even tried alsa mixer that is not helping

Bothe have no mods on the PSU...the Alix is powered with a small switching PSU and the Biostar with a Silverstone fanless. Alix as well ist just playing now 2 hours, not burned in at all so far...I guess I will give it some Oscons and a large filtering bank...

I read somewhere on diyaudio forum that SMPS doesn't like huge caps bank. I think it's better to replace that SMPS with linear supply, as Alix consumes very few watts a linear ps is very easy to built.

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